My Word Processor won't run on WIn 98

Hi team,
I wrote a simplified word processor in Delphi.
I have a bug though that I can't understand.
The exe will run no trouble on Win 2000 or XP, but when you try and run it on 98 or 98 SE it won't run.
Instead it gives an rror message
"This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down"

THe next error message is
Exception EInOutErrorin module prjWriter.exe at 000B5A8A. invalid filename

I have created a log file in the project unit of the application, but this never gets created so I from this I gather that the application doesn't even start the reading any of the code at all...

The problem could be that you're using Windows NT-specific instructions in your code. W2K and XP have been based upon the Windows NT sourcecode and while the Windows API's for 95/98 and NT/W2K/XP is quite similar, there are also quite a few compatibility problems. I think you just found one.
The best solution that I've seen in these cases is to just put W2K as minimum operating system. Saves you a lot of compatibility issues. :-)

If you want to solve it, then let me make a wild guess. It complains about an invalid filename so either the filename you're using is too big or it contains invalid characters. Are you using unicode filenames? Is the filename longer than 255 characters?

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Thanks for your help guys,
I have been away from the net for a while sorry about that....
I like the idea of putting W2K as the minimum operating system, but many of the users that (hopefully) will be using this program will have win 98 so I would like to try and solve the problem...

They still use Windows 98? I would have expected most people would be using XP by now. People who still use 98 probably have systems that are about 5 years old, or older. But the XP Home edition should be supported well by those older systems, I assume. Increasing the minimum requirements is just a good idea because you don't want to have lots of trouble maintaining backwards compatibility. If you have to adjust your code to support 98, you might even have to drom some functionality because it might not be available on 98.

I compile and test my programs on Win98 and that's how I found out/resolved a similar problem (ICELicense seems to cause this exception to occur on W98). BTW Win98SE is still being sold in the Distribution channel so there's some life left in it yet.

If it is ascertained that this solution works for you, if you are concerned that there may be knock-on effects with other OS's you can handle the exception rather than ignoring it (i.e. if win98 then ignoreexception else handlexception).

Well I got to work and left my copy of Delphi at home again.... Dohhhh!
So I will have to leave the experiment of installing Delphi onto the 98 platform till tomorrow, sorry for the time delay...

One issue we were concerned about with testing our system on a system with Delphi on it is that the program might use some files from the Installed Delphi and so testing a program on a system with Delphi installed would be quite different 2 testing on a system without delphi...

If the BDE is being used and the aliases is being created manually (by going into the BDE to create them) then you are working on the same target data regardless of location of the program files. If you dynamically create aliases to be in a directory relative to the installation directory then you should be ok (unless you are using the Registry to store values, or other things that are singular on the target system - an ini file in a specific, absolutely defined location for example).

If this is software you are going to package up and send out, then any tests that involve the creating of the initial environment need to be tested by removing everything from the pc to install and test. If however everything is in its own subdirectory then install everything into a new testbed directory then this should isolate you from the development system (subject to my para 1 above).

I am sorry other problems came up that needed dealing with, but thank you for your patience...
I will close this question now so not to leave anyone hanging.
THanks all for your help.
There are still problems, when I get a bit closer to be able to solving them then I might post another question up on E-E

Thanks agaian

Myles

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